belgium

Comparing the green parties in both parts of Belgium is comparing apples and oranges (pun intended). The Flemish green party (Groen!) is a poor extract of what it used to be and if you heard Mieke Vogels debate (both in the Flemish parliament as well as during elections) I am surprised they didn't loose any more votes. You don't need to vote Groen! to vote green anymore although maybe some use their vote to make a statement. And they are free to do just that. And while Mieke's intentions are good, the execution is poor. (I liked the old Groen! politicians better)

After the recent scandals in one of the smallest countries on this planet, here is a status update.

Belgium (about 10 million people) consists of two main, partly independent regions (Flanders and Wallonia) that differ in many aspects of which language is the most important one (respectively Dutch and French).

The government is (by law) split into two sides and neither one of them accepts changes to legislation that would (after calculations or spin) benefit the other region more than its own.

I read Paul's post and I see some recurring things that I do not agree with.

Independence of the regions will cause even more fragmentation. Paul seems to suggest that if Flanders and Wallonia would actually divorce, that it opens the door for provinces to do the same on the same grounds. But the same grounds do not exist today.

The language barrier does not exist in Flanders. Sure some dialects sound different, but at least we can communicate with the majority of the people within Flanders on equal grounds. If you watch RTBF or read Le Soir (which almost nobody does in Flanders) you will see that everything is colored differently. You don't see that in the regional newspapers or media.